RickHarvey

The film might be a bit sloppy in terms of trying to force emotion. And yes, at times it was corny and a tad bit unbelievable but despite this, Seven Pounds is a good film.

It's simple, it's sentimental, it's sad. Will Smith proves he can perform a role which requires a matured person. That, is basically it. Now, i'm astounded to read that viewers had felt as if they were being left in the dark during the slow build up to the conclusion. Even top reviewer have spoken their distress towards this matter. It baffles me. From the opening scenes with it's opening lines, it was obvious what the protagonist was planning on doing.

From the get-go, we know that Ben is a disturbed fellow and sadly, throughout the length of the film, we never dive deeper into his character; into his background. Yes, he's depressed and we know his goal but we learn nothing else. And this leads to me saying that Will smith, despite playing a maturer role, didn't actually carry out a masterclass in acting out a well-rounded, enigmatic character.

You could also say that Seven pounds has a bout of the similar disease which affected Lionel Richie. It is a creepy, when you stop and think of it, that Will Smith was stalking these people. And again, the tests he puts forward to find out if they truly deserve their gifts are faulty and dour. The kid, for example, could easily turn into some deprived serial killer. Risky, Ben, Risky.

It's sad, but it's sad in the same fashion of that of a Animal charity advert: It's made to manipulate and force you to act and this is what the film is set out to do: Too simply get people to leave the cinema and pass the word to others about how sad it all is. Simple, in other words.

God Damn bloody simple. Yeah. Everything about the script comes across as a first draft. The acting however is top notch and the direction rolls in it's own poop with the script it has to work with.

When compared to the book, IT is dreadful. If you leave your sweet memories of the book on the backseat of your mind and try to watch IT as a film solely made for the screen, then IT is bad.

It's well-known that the film adaption of a book usually doesn't reach the reader's expectations so i'll comment as if i've never read the book.

The pacing is too quick. you are introduced vaguely to the loser's club before quickly joining their quest to defeat IT. You never truly attach yourself to the clan and instead, you watch the film mainly because of Tim Curry's excellent performance. You follow the kids story from the beginning but you don't really care what happens to them. There just kids anyhow and when kids are the central focus of a story, then it's bound to be daft and silly (which IT comes across as sadly.) Everything seems to be done in a rush. The acting is fine with the none of the kids coming across as pretentious or annoying. The adult versions of the characters also put in fine performances.

But with many characters involved, the film never lets you get to know them in any depth and this leads to boredom. If the producers had followed the path of 'The Stand' and made IT as a ten hour TV series rather than three, then no doubt it would of been more intriguing.

The film that invigorated the swords and sandals genre once more. To not threaten the brevity of the review by repeating what everybody else already knows, i will sum up Gladitor by writing these words: An epic revenge film set in Roman days.

If it's facts your looking for ( and god bless you if so) then don't get upset when history has blatantly been rewritten in order to escalate the viewers enjoyment of the excellent story.

This film could easily of ended up being cheesy but thankfully everyone pulls of their roles. R.Scott couldn't of shot it any better. Plenty of action for the bloody-thirsty folks and the main character probably has the coolest name in movie history.